While the Nordic countries dominate the best countries for women's list, the lowest-ranking countries on the index are historically more unstable and volatile.

See the 10 worst countries for women below.

1/

10. Niger

Niger is one of the world's poorest nations.
Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

Only 17% of women in Niger aged 15 to 24 are literate, according to a list compiled by ONE campaign (a non-profit aiming to fight extreme poverty and preventable disease).

Additionally, Save the Children released a 2016 report of the best and worst places for girls based on five indicators, which included child marriage and adolescent fertility rates, and Niger, where 76% of young women were reportedly married before they were 18, and one in five adolescent girls gave birth a year on average, scored the last place in a list of 144 countries.

2/

9. Sudan

According to a profile from UNICEF, 34% of women aged 15 to 49 in Sudan believe that a husband/partner is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstance, and that 34% of women aged 20 to 24 were married or in a union by the time they were 18.

3/

8. Mali

A Malian woman cheers Malian soldiers arriving in a convoy at the military base in Timbuktu, Mali.Jerome Delay / AP

7. Iraq

Mosul, Iraq.
Suhaib Salem/Reuters

A 2010 United Nations fact sheet stated that one in five Iraqi women were subject to domestic violence, and a 2012 Ministry of Planning study found that at least 36% of married Iraqi women have experienced some form of abuse at the hands of their husbands.

5/

6. Congo, Democratic Republic

Congo has the potential to be one of Africa's richest nations, due to its wealth in natural resources— however, it remains one of the world's least developed countries, with at least 7.5 million in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

5. Central African Republic

A woman goes through a security check before entering a polling station in the PK5 district of Bangui, Central African Republic
Jerome Delay/ AP

The Central African Republic (CAR) has been embroiled in violent armed conflict since 2013, and instances of violence against women, including rape, have been reported by the UN.

"Numerous cases of violence against women, in particular sexual abuse and rape, have been reported in all of the localities that Seleka combatants have passed through," the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo, reported in 2013.

"Gender-based violence continues to undermine the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims in Syria," said Panos Moumtzis, the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator (RHC) for the Syria Crisis. "It's imperative we do more."

Sign up here to get INSIDER's favorite stories straight to your inbox.